Today In History

811 Battle at Pliska: Bulgarian under monarch Krum beat Byzantine
1267 Inquistion forms in Rome under Pope Clement IV
1499 Alonso dhe Ojeda discovers Curacao Island (great oranges)
1519 Pizarro receives royal charter for South American west coast
1524 James I becomes King of Scotland
1529 Francisco Pizarro appointed governor of Peru
1576 Muitende Spanish troops conquer Aalst
1579 Francis Drake leaves San Francisco to cross Pacific Ocean
1588 John Hawkins becomes a knight
1656 Rembrandt declares he is insolvent
1663 France annexes Venaissin
1678 England and Netherlands signs treaty: sending ultimatum to France
1757 Battle at Hastenbeck: French army beats duke of Cumberland
1758 British battle fleet under gen James Wolfe conquerors Louisbourg
1759 French troops vacate Ticonderoga NY
1760 Austrian troops occupy Fort Glatz Silezie
1775 The first Postmaster General: Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania takes office
1788 New York becomes 11th state to ratify constitution
1788 Sydney, Australia settled by British colonists
1790 U.S. passes Assumption bill making U.S. responsible for state debts
1805 Naples/Calabria struck by Earthquake; about 26,000 people die
1822 Secret meeting of Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin
1826 Vilnus Lithuanian riots cause death of many Jews
1832 HMS Beagle anchors in Montevideo
1835 The first sugar cane plantation is started in Hawaii
1847 Liberia declares independence from American Colonization Society
1847 Moses Garrish Farmer builds first miniature train for children to ride
1848 The first Woman's Rights Convention, Senecca Falls, New York
1858 Baron Lionel de Rothschild is first Jew elected to British Parliament
1863 Battle of Salineville OH, John Hunt Morgan and 364 troops surrender
1864 Battle at Ezra Chapel (Church), Georgia [Hood's Third Sortie]
1865 Patrick Francis Healy is first black awarded a PhD
1866 Canoe Club opens in England
1881 French marines occupy Tunisian harbor city Sfax
1882 Richard Wagner's opera "Parsifal," premieres in Beirut
1887 The first Esperanto book published
1891 Henry James' "American," premieres in London
1897 37.5 cm rainfall at Jewell, Maryland (state record)
1902 Australia beat England by 3 runs at Old Trafford
1908 Predecessor of the FBI is created by the Department of Justice
1914 Austrian-Hungary condemns Serbian ultimatum
1914 British Min of Navy Winston Churchill orders British fleet to remain
1914 German chief of staff/gen von Moltke states ultimatum on Belgium
1915 International School for Wijsbegeerte forms
1917 J. Edgar Hoover gets job on ministry of Justice
1918 Race riot in Philadelphia (3 whites and 1 black killed)
1926 National Bar Association incorporates
1926 Philippines government asks U.S. to plebiscite for independence
1928 Gene Tunney TKOs Tom Heeney in 11 for heavyweight boxing title
1938 The first radio broadcast of "Young Widder Brown" on NBC
1941 "Camp Amersfoort" opened by Germany occupiers
1941 U.S. embargo on oil-export to Japan
1942 RAF bombs Hamburg
1942 RC churches protest, Dutch Bishops stand against spread of Judaism
1943 120 degrees F (49 degrees C), Tishmoningo, Oklahoma (state record)
1944 Japanese suicide attack on U.S. lines in Guam
1944 Russian troops arrive in Weichsel
1944 U.S. offensive at St-Lo/2nd Armour div occupies St. Gilles
1945 After Labour landslide in general election, Clement Attlee becomes PM
1945 Declaration of Potsdam: US/Brit/China demands Japanese surrender
1945 Japanese government disregards U.S. ultimatum
1945 U.S. cruiser Indianapolis reaches Tinian with atom bomb
1945 Winston Churchill resigns as Britain's PM
1946 President Truman orders desegregation of all U.S. forces
1947 Department of Defense forms
1947 National Security Act establishes CIA
1948 "Babe Ruth Story" premieres: Babe Ruth's last public appearance
1948 The first black host of a network show-CBS' Bob Howard Show
1948 Leo Durocher returns to Ebbets Field as a New York Giant
1948 President Truman issues Executive Order No. 9981 directing "equality of treatment and opportunity" in armed forces
1951 Netherlands ends state of war with Germany
1952 King Farouk I of Egypt abdicates
1952 Mickey Mantle hits his first grand-slammer
1953 Fidel Castro begins rebellion, the "26th of July Movement," against Fulgenico Batista's regime
1955 37th PGA Championship: Doug Ford at Meadowbrook CC Detroit
1955 Ted Allen throws a record 72 consecutive horseshoe ringers
1956 Egypt seizes Suez Canal
1957 Mickey Mantle hits career HR # 200
1957 U.S.S.R. launches first intercontinental multistage ballistic missile
1958 Army launches 4th U.S. successful satellite, Explorer IV
1959 Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Western Golf Open
1960 Italian government of Fanfani forms
1962 Maria Oeljanov, first airship with nuclear missiles, arrives in Cuba
1963 Skopje, Yugoslavia, destroyed by earthquake, kills 1,000+ people
1963 U.S. Syncom 2, first geosynchronous communications satellite, launched
1964 Clifford Ann Creed wins LPGA Cosmopolitan Women's Golf Open
1964 Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa convicted of fraud and conspiracy
1964 Train from Povoa de Varzin, Portugal derails near Oporto, 94 die
1965 Republic of Maldives gains independence from Britain (Natl Day)
1969 Sharon Sites Adams, 39, becomes first lady to solo sail the Pacific
1971 Apollo 15 launched (Scott and Irwin) to 4th manned landing on Moon
1977 U.S.S.R. performs underground nuclear Test
1978 France performs nuclear Test at Muruora Island
1981 2 climbers fall 550 meters down a cliff near Angel Falls, Venezuela
1981 36th U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship won by Pat Bradley
1981 New York Mayor Ed Koch is given Heimlich maneuver in a Chinese restaurant
1982 Canada's Anik D1 Comsat launched by U.S. Delta rocket
1982 Karen Dianne Baldwin, 18, of Canada, crowned 31st Miss Universe
1983 Challenger moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating for STS-8
1983 Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czech sets 800m woman's record (1:53.28)
1983 Light flashes seen on Jupiter moon Io
1984 Expos Pete Rose ties Ty Cobb with his 3,052nd single
1984 Pitcher Vida Blue suspended for rest of 1984 due to drug use
1986 Lebanese kidnappers released Rev. Lawrence Martin Jenco
1987 Catfish Hunter Billy Williams and Ray Dandridge inducted in Baseball HOF
1987 Stephen Roche wins Tour de France
1990 General Hospital tapes its 7,000th episode
1990 President Bush signs Americans With Disabilities Act
1990 Roseanne Barr sings National Anthem at Reds-Padres game
1990 U.S. beats Soviet Union 17-0 in baseball at Goodwill Games
1992 47th U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship won by Patty Sheehan
1992 Kiss Guitarist Paul Stanley weds Pamela Bowen
1993 Boeing 737-500 crashes in South Korea, 66 people are killed
1993 Mars Observer takes first photo of Mars: from 5 billion km
1994 Cambodia's Red Khmer surprise attack on train kills 13 people
1994 Turkish air force bombs Kurds, struggle in Iraq, 70 killed
1998 19th U.S. Senior Golf Open ends at Riviera CC, Pacific Palisades, California
1998 Giant Eagle LPGA Classic
2005 Shuttle Discovery STS-114 launches: first flight since Columbia disaster

Today In History - July 26

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